When Brad Spence first put on his team Canada jacket, it was one of the proudest moments of his life. What made it even more special is what Spence had overcome to put on that jacket.

Spence, a two-time Olympic slalom skier who competed in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games, visited Percy Baxter School on Thursday, May 29, as part of the Classroom Champions program. He has been corresponding with Warren Moody’s Grade 8 class for the last year, mostly through Skype and other online methods, thanks to the class winning a video contest, but on Thursday the school was able to see him in person.

“Putting on my team Canada jacket after I qualified for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was one of the best moments of my life,” Spence said.

However, there was a time when Spence doubted if he would be able to go to the Olympics.

In December 2005, Spence was competing in Bormio, Italy, in his first year on the World Cup, when he had an accident during a run, breaking his leg in two places, tearing his ACL ligament and suffering damage to the meniscus in his right knee.

“There I am in a hospital room in Europe, being treated by doctors who were speaking to me in a language I did not understand about having surgery,” Spence said, adding that all the while he was wondering if he would ever be able to ski again.

It would be two weeks and two surgeries later before Spence would return to Canada.

After returning to Canada one of the first people he talked to was the team Canada surgeon in Calgary.

“He [the surgeon] asked me, ‘Brad, what did they do to you?,” Spence said.

The team doctor told Spence that the surgery techniques the doctor’s in Europe used were no longer used in Canada so his leg might not heal properly and that they may have to do additional surgeries just to repair the damage done by the doctors in Europe.

The Canadian team doctor elected to allow Spence’s leg to heal on its own and not do any more surgeries and six months later Spence started his rehab.

Spence said he was determined to ski again and compete in the Olympic games.

“It was always my dream to compete in the Olympics,” Spence said. “Everybody has to face adversity in life, but it is how we face that adversity that is important.”

He said at times he was not sure he would be able to do it, saying it was a long road back.

During his rehab, Spence found out there was a complication from one of the surgeries. He found out he had suffered nerve damage that made it impossible to feel or move his toes on his right foot.

He made it his personal goal to be able to move his toes.

“Here I was, this hot-shot skier, at physiotherapy with a piece of Kleenex on my toes trying to move it,” Spence said.

He said it took a lot of perseverance. A year later, Spence said he was able to move that Kleenex.

Eventually, Spence was able to return to the slopes and by 2008-2009 he was back on the World Cup circuit.

About two months before the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Spence qualified for the Olympics with back-to-back 12th place finishes in Alta Badia, Italy and Kitzbuehel, Austria.

“The day I found out I had qualified to go to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was, and still is, the best day of my life,” Spence said.

After Vancouver, Spence continued to compete on the World Cup circuit in an effort to qualify for next Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Once again the journey to the Olympics was not without its struggles. Spence said between Vancouver and Sochi he had three more surgeries.

“The course at Sochi was the most challenging of my career,” he said, but it was a challenge he was ready for.

Unfortunately in his first slalom run, Spence did not do as well as he hoped, finishing in 30th place.

In his second and final run, Spence skied well and crossed the finish line in first place.

“It was a great feeling looking up and seeing that I was in first place,” Spence said. But in a sport where fractions of a second and inches can make a world of difference, Spence was disqualified when the tips of his skis did not properly touch a flag.

“It was heartbreaking,” Spence said. “But you can not dwell on the negative. I had a great time at the Olympics and got to live a dream.”